Azerbaijan and Ukraine Are The New European Champions

On Sunday Azerbaijan won the European Team Championships in Warsaw, Poland. With a 2.5-1.5 win against Greece in the penultimate round followed by 2-2 against Armenia, the team consisting of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Teimour Radjabov, Eltaj Safarli, Rauf Mamedov and Gadir Guseinov finished on 14 match points, one more than France, Russia and Armenia. Ukraine won the women's section ahead of Russia and Poland.

For most of the tournament France was in the lead, but in the last two rounds it went wrong. Well, the 2-2 against Armenia on Saturday wasn't that bad. Boards 3 and 4 were drawn; Vachier-Lagrave beat Movsesian with black:

On board one Bacrot overpressed and was nicely outcalculated by Aronian:

In the same round Azerbaijan defeated Greece with three draws and one win:

Russia defeated the Netherlands 2.5-1.5 but this match could have ended differently. Giri got a nice advantage against Grischuk but failed to find a good plan and then chose a spectacular way to draw:

As Smeets and Andreikin also drew their game, Svidler was the one who decided the match:

The final round saw the clash between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Black was rather solid in all games, and in the end all ended in draws. This was good news for France, who were having good tiebreaks, but in the end they couldn't hold themselves against Russia. The decisive game in this match was the following.

And so, just like for years ago in Novi Sad, Azerbaijan clinched the gold medals. They didn't lose a single match, and of the 36 individual only 4 games were lost.

The following text was posted on Facebook by Teimour Radjabov dedicated to Vugar Gashimov, who is still under treatment in Baku.

Very pity that Vugar Gashimov wasnt here with us, part of this victory belongs to him! We hope OUR WIN will help him to recover faster! We raised a toast in Vugar's (Gashimov) honor. Our team will be extremely strong when he will be back. AZERBAIJAN!

Despite their last-round debacle, France played a excellent tournament and won silver, while top seed Russia went home with bronze.

European Team Championship 2013 | Final Standings

Rk.

SNo

Team

+

=

-

TB1

TB2

TB3

TB4

1

6

AZERBAIJAN

5

4

0

14

212

21

178,5

2

3

FRANCE

5

3

1

13

210,5

20,5

181,5

3

1

RUSSIA

6

1

2

13

202

22,5

177

4

2

ARMENIA

5

3

1

13

195,5

20

172

5

7

HUNGARY

4

4

1

12

200,5

21,5

171

6

14

GEORGIA

4

4

1

12

178,5

20

177

7

15

GREECE

4

3

2

11

199,5

20,5

178

8

9

CZECH REPUBLIC

4

3

2

11

192,5

20,5

179

9

4

UKRAINE

4

3

2

11

188,5

20,5

173,5

10

5

ENGLAND

3

5

1

11

184,5

20

176

11

8

NETHERLANDS

5

1

3

11

167

23,5

144,5

12

13

ITALY

4

3

2

11

142

19

169,5

13

20

SERBIA

3

4

2

10

173

21

163

14

19

ROMANIA

3

4

2

10

159,5

21,5

149

15

17

BELARUS

4

2

3

10

155,5

18,5

174,5

16

12

POLAND

3

4

2

10

154

19,5

161,5

17

16

CROATIA

3

4

2

10

151

18,5

169,5

18

30

MONTENEGRO

4

2

3

10

124,5

17,5

159

19

11

SPAIN

3

3

3

9

144,5

18

162,5

20

10

GERMANY

3

3

3

9

142,5

18

163

21

22

SLOVENIA

4

1

4

9

138

16,5

171

22

23

POLAND FUTURES

4

1

4

9

121,5

18

158,5

23

34

LITHUANIA

4

1

4

9

112

19

154

24

18

TURKEY

3

2

4

8

145

17,5

166,5

25

21

BULGARIA

3

2

4

8

134

18

164

26

25

SWEDEN

3

2

4

8

127,5

18

155

27

26

DENMARK

3

2

4

8

115

18,5

151

28

29

ISRAEL

3

1

5

7

124

16,5

162

29

28

ICELAND

3

1

5

7

112

17,5

158,5

30

27

AUSTRIA

2

3

4

7

110,5

14

172,5

31

24

POLAND GOLDIES

3

1

5

7

110

16

153

32

31

SWITZERLAND

3

1

5

7

103

14,5

164,5

33

33

BELGIUM

3

1

5

7

95,5

18,5

139

34

32

FINLAND

2

2

5

6

94

16,5

139,5

35

36

NORWAY

3

0

6

6

68,5

14

134,5

36

37

SCOTLAND

1

2

6

4

67,5

13

140

37

35

FYR MACEDONIA

2

0

7

4

66,5

14

137,5

38

38

WALES

0

0

9

0

13,5

2

155,5

Below you can find the best scoring players — all who performed 2800+.

No.

Naam

Rtg

Team

Rp

Pts.

Partijen

%

Bo.

1

GM

SOKOLOV Ivan

2625

NETHERLANDS

2941

6,5

7

92,9

2

2

GM

TOPALOV Veselin

2774

BULGARIA

2900

5,5

7

78,6

1

3

GM

NAIDITSCH Arkadij

2727

GERMANY

2854

5,5

7

78,6

1

4

GM

BARTEL Mateusz

2626

POLAND

2836

7,5

9

83,3

3

5

GM

ARONIAN Levon

2801

ARMENIA

2813

6

9

66,7

1

6

GM

SVIDLER Peter

2752

RUSSIA

2806

6,5

9

72,2

1

For Veselin Topalov there is good news: the Bulgarian jumped back to the world number 5th place in the live ratings.

Ukraine secured the gold medals with a round to spare, beating Armenia 3-1. Board one of this match went as follows:

The 3-1 loss against Russia in the final round didn't matter for Ukraine while the Russian ladies secured the silver medals. Former World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk performed the best of all players with 7.5/8 and an impressive 2766 TPR. Here's her game from the final round:

I am trying to figure out why it is a "debacle" for France to lose against Russia. In my book a debacle would be for France to lose 1-3 against e.g. Wales but losing 1.5-2.5 against Russia sounds more like a normal result.

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